Stereotypical, obliviously white racists unable to comprehend anyone who is not white in Adichie’s Americanah

I hate being labeled. Then again, who enjoys having a stereotype plastered to their forehead as those around them expect them to act, to exist within a set of pre-existing boundaries that someone else’s thoughts and actions have already laid out? These stereotypes and labels are not often presented to a person based on the whole of that person, rather stereotypes are pinned badges that you earn from something as simple as skin colour, country, or even city, of origin, a simple phrase of disagreement or a liking for a certain thing. Of course no matter where in the world you are it always seems that the most prominent of these stereotypes is race. And as such it is the most taboo.

A product of colonial history the battle against racism has been the loudest and most publicized battle against stereotypes. And in the cooling aftermath of the battle you’d think that those who fought hard to fairly present their racial background to the world would be mindful of not pin stereotypes on other races… but it would seem not. Adichie’s Americanah is one such novel that exists as presentation of the struggle of a ‘non-American Black’ in America and to help undermine the stereotypes that exist for such character in contemporary literature. Going into reading this book I did not expect to be presented with blatant stereotypes. Stereotypes that were applied to me as a white reader. Racially based stereotypes. But I was. Every single white character in this novel fit into the ‘obliviously racist unable to comprehend anyone who is not white’ category. Understandingly I was taken aback. But the more I considered the more it made sense, and the more it fed my understanding of this text. So sit back and let me explain where and why Adichie’s Americanah only contains of stereotypical white characters.

SMASH!!! The plate, which my year seven history teacher had, so carefully placed down on the table at the front only minuets ago was being smashed against the board. By my history teacher. Only five minutes before he told us it was a precious antique. Then he had told us he would be back in a minuet and that he needed us to stay in our seats. And then he left. We of course sat quietly; after all it was only our second history lesson. You can imagine our utter shock and surprise and fear when the teacher flounced into the classroom only minuets latter with a hammer and started smashing the plate, hitting it against the board and then grinding the pieces underfoot. He suddenly stopped and told us to record what had just happened. He of course was making a point, teaching us how hard it is to record history and the evidence that was left behind and it was the shock of his method that made the lesson stay with us to whom he was making his point. Like my year seven history teacher Adichie’s also employs this tool of shock in Americanah. The stereotypical white characters are so shockingly racist in their treatment and inability to understand the black characters in this novel that I actually had to stop reading at my utter disgust and shock at these characters. In short Americanah contains white stereotypes is a simple but effective literary response to really world issues and shocks the reader into facing them. This stands out most clearly when the main characters, the Nigerians Ifemelu and Obinze, interact with well off white people in the Western countries that they have moved to. Ifemelu gains work babysitting while in America and her employer Kimberly is unintentionally racist so often that the reader cannot help but be shocked at her cluelessness. Their first meeting after Kimberly comments on Ifemelu’s name calling it ‘multicultural’ is a perfect example of this shocking unintentional stereotypical racism, ‘Kimberly was smiling the kindly smile of people who thought “culture” the unfamiliar colourful reserve of colourful people, a word that always had to qualified with “rich”. She would not think Norway had a “rich culture”.’ Like Kimberly many of the white character that Ifemula comes across bare this shocking unintentional racism, from Kimberly’s friend Laura to her cousin, Curt, who is for a while Ifemula boyfriend. This shocking stereotype of unintentional racism pervades this text and shocks, I think especially the white reader, into a consideration of where such things still exist in their world a consideration of the political climate and context that we still currently live in. This idea of presenting a stereotype in a shocking way to get a point across is also exemplified in in the experiences of the other main character Obinze while he is in England. The shallowness of the white characters that Obinze encounters when he goes to dinner at Emenike and Georgina’s dinner party was one of the most confronting part of the novel for me. The characters in this scene are not only unintentional racist but also hold a shallowness, an uptightness and superiority that gives an inability to understand or even attempt to understand anyone who is not white. A comment, made obliviously by one of the quests, “Of course people are prejudiced, but we aren’t all prejudiced?” is starkly at contrast with their inability to actually understand or even try and understand Obinze and in this case, refuges. As Obinze puts it “They would not understand why people like him, who were raised well-fed and watered but mired in dissatisfaction, conditioned from birth to look towards somewhere else, were now resolved to do dangerous things, illegal things, so as to leave, none of them starving, or raped, or from burned villages, but merely hungry for choice and certainty.” These white characters are stereotypically oblivious and shallow to the point that they comment on the injustice and wrongs of the world without attempting to understand anything outside their own sphere of comfort. They see the obvious racism, the stereotypes that the media and the world loves to put down and they claim they are different, as many of us do and in doing so they live up to the oblivious shallow white stereotype. Using these shocking stereotypes, unintentional racism and shallowness inhibiting understanding of anyone who is not white, Adichie’s challenges the context o the white reader and does what literature all around the world aims to makes it reader do, it makes the reader think.

Of course beyond the pointed use of these stereotypes to engage the reader and make the reader think there also exist the social context that surrounds this text. And as a history major it is easy to see the historical and social precedent that non-white would have in a white country. That is, a non-white person in a white country expects racism from the white people around them solely based on the historical context of white countries. I went to a high school with a large amount of international students from Asian countries. Despite the fact that they all spoke English very well they avoided contact with all white students to the point where at lunch and recess they all congregated in the ESL classroom. One of my best friends was of Korean heritage, and often took advantage of the microwave in the ESL classroom. Being of Korean heritage she walked in and out easily. One lunchtime she dragged me with her and as I walked into the classroom everyone seemed to be looking at me. Now I am very white, with English, Scottish and Irish heritage with a little Spanish thrown in. Everyone in that room stared at me and I hurried after my friend ignores them. While she heated up her lunch I tried to talk to a few of the people who had come over to talk to her. The smiled and gave one word closed answers. It was clear I was not welcome. My friend talked to a few other people and then we left. Later I asked her why they were all staring at me and why they wouldn’t talk to me, and laughing she told me it was because I was white (the reason they stared) and white people were more often then not racist (why they wouldn’t have a conversation with me). She laughed knowing that these non-whites had expected me to be racist because I was white. Similarly Ifemelu expects the white people round her to racist as if to be racist is an inbuilt stereotype that all white people have ingrained into their very nature. This can be seen in the offhanded thoughts the audience is privy to. ‘At least, these women would not say to her “You’re hot? But you’re from Africa!” is one such though early in the novel. The continuation of such comment and their increase in scenes involving white characters highlights the expectation of a racial distance and prejudice that to exist between non-whites and whites. Latter on in the Ifemula makes the blog post ‘Sometimes in America, Race is class” based off one experience she had with a cleaning man. At this point already frustrated by over stereotypical portrayal of the white characters I was annoyed enough to want to put the book down. I was at ends to why all (yes I’m going to go with ALL) the white characters where stereotypical and racist! But a consideration of the historical and social context that this book is coming form and dealing with in the period post 9/11 and going even further back the continuing ramifications of the colonial period that saw blacks as slaved, it can be seen why there exists and expectation of racism by white people towards non-whites. Adichie’s own context as a Nigerian who traveled to America at the age of nineteen, intersect with this historical and social context in the text.

So why does Adichie’s Americanah embrace the racial stereotype associated with white people? Simply put it does so both as a literary tool to challenge the reader and as a byproduct of a the historical and social context of Adichie and of blacks in general. So should white readers who are challenged or put off by the struggle to relate to character who are contextually closest to them cause them to dismiss this book? Should having the racial stereotype plastered in your face as a white reader cause you to ignore this text? No. In doing so you accept the stereotypes. You wear the stereotype and exist accepting this. Should not these stereotypes inspire change? If a text challenges us should we not seek to see why it does so and act in a way that the wrongs can no longer be attributed to us. So white readers do accept the stereotypes or are you willing to shake them off?